Weeknotes #69: Safe Enough Spaces Happen by Design
Team Coaching Insights #04 of #05
You are reading Coaching Weeknotes by Roxana Bacian Coaching: explorations at the intersection of coaching, inner and organisational development.
I’m Roxana, I help teams and leaders build the skills they need to make change last. These week notes are multiply authored - arrived at in conversation with many:
This summer I launched a new team coaching offer (now with new content!) to support teams and organisations to navigate organisational challenges with care and integrity. Teams and leaders are now facing a world of new challenges as they need to:
* Deliver organisational targets with limited timeframes and a hybrid/remote team;
* Continue to innovate and respond creatively to challenges;
* Make space for pause, regeneration and experimentation;
* Retain financial sustainability whilst delivering high quality of outputs;
* Build cultures of accessibility and belonging where all team members can thrive.
All on the backdrop of complex political and technological events.
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As part of this launch I’m sharing 5x insights from the last couple of years working as an Associate Coach on New Economy Organisers Network (NEON)’s OrgBuilders programme. OrgBuilders was NEON’s year-long programme of coaching, practical support and guidance for social justice organisations looking to make changes to their strategy, culture and operations through an anti-oppressive lens.
These insights are drawn from on the ground work with teams and colleagues dedicated to their work of shifting societal systems towards true care and equity:
Team Coaching Insight #04:
Safe Enough Spaces, Most Often, Happen by Design:
Real change, most often, takes ample time.
Organisational change also takes resources and financial risk. It follows then that approaching change with discernment is paramount. Neither people or systems change on demand, they often change in time with care and attention.
To work in teams, to truly contribute our voices, we need to feel that it’s worth it: that what we say will be heard, built upon and end up shaping the work we do together.
That may feel common sense but it’s actually rare.
Safety is perceived differently by each one of us. We all bring both personal and professional experiences to working in groups that define how we show up in teams, how we communicate and what we expect from others.
When it comes to tackling important organisational conversations, safety becomes even more important. The more welcome, supported and heard team members feel the more they can contribute. Foundationally, this of course comes down to quality facilitation, understanding needs prior to the meeting, clear goals and boundaries of conversations decided ahead of time.
Designing conversations for safety doesn’t mean we won’t feel uncomfortable at times especially when approaching conflict. But it does mean that we trust that the people around us will hold this in a compassionate gaze and a collective commitment to work through issues with kindness and patience.
I’ve often learnt these lessons on the ground with teams, through trial and error. I’ve seen teams share spaces that didn’t feel accessible nor safe. Often, there is huge learning in this and where there is deep compassion, these lessons can change the fabric of an organisation’s culture.
I’ve also seen teams who excelled at having difficult conversations and left the room vibrant and connected. Those are gifted moments, but they don’t happen by miracle but by design, preparation, living into values and showing up for the graft of doing so.
Read insights 1/5 on team alignment here; insight 2/5 on going beyond hard team work here; insight 3/5 on structure and emergence here. And subscribe to be the first to read the last insight on feedback soon.
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Working Together:
Are you a senior leader, HR director, learning and development lead, a team manager or a self-led team? Have you been looking to put in new support in place for your team so they have the best chance at meeting targets whilst maintaing integrity, care and innovation?
Book a free introduction call on Calendly to explore working together. If you know a team or a leader in your network who would benefit from this work, please share it with them.
#TeamCoaching #TraumaInformed #Relational #TeamDynamics #PsychologicalSafety
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Thank you for reading, as always.
See you next week,
Roxana
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Roxana Bacian Coaching ACC (she/her)
Team, Organisational and Leadership Coach
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